Welcome to Academie Cavallo!

2020 marks ten years since Devon, Adam, and I started the Mounted Combat (Cavaliere) program at Academie Duello.  And now, as of this summer, the program has a life of its own as Academie Cavallo! What's Changing Aside from the awesome new logo (thanks to my talented daughter Kate Landels), payment and registration for classes…

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Get Back in the Saddle with the Mounted Combat Program

We're delighted to announce the return of scheduled Riding, Horsemanship, and Mounted Combat classes at Cornwall Ridge Equestrian, starting June 7th! COVID-19 Precautions We have always had small class sizes and plenty of open space at our stables.  Riding class size will remain at the maximum of four, and we are restricting Mounted Combat classes…

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Double the Swordplay Opportunities at Cornwall Ridge

Good news!  For those of you who want more swordplay practice and who can't make it downtown, there are now swordplay classes almost every Sunday at Cornwall Ridge.  Mounted Combat Mastery continues to run twice a month, and now Mounted Combat Fundamentals has a twice monthly section open to apprentice level (green cord or green…

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Getting Back in the Saddle for 2020: 5 Easy Exercises for Equestrians

Classes start up again on January 12th after our December hiatus.  If you missed our Christmas playday and therefore haven't been on a horse since November ... or perhaps even longer ... here are some quick exercises and stretches to prime your body for riding once more. Five Easy Exercises for Equestrians Plank.  Core strength…

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Before You Get on the Horse

Riding Level 1: Preparing to Mount The first item on the Riding 1 checklist deals with preparing to mount your horse. 1. Adjust stirrups and girth from the ground, put reins over horse’s head Pretty simple, right?  And in truth, most people get 9s or 10s in this section. However, until this is second nature…

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The Riding Level 1 Curriculum

Over the spring and summer I’ve put up posts detailing the requirements for our Horsemanship Level 1.  If you read through those posts, look at the relevant chapters of the Manual of Horsemanship, and attend at least Horsemanship classes in which you have the opportunity to practice handling, grooming and tacking up, you have a…

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Allie & Christian cross swords in a Prix Fiore test

Carosella 2019: The Results are in!

What an amazing weekend! Carosella 2019 was our seventh iteration of the event but it contained many firsts.  We finally brought Working Equitation to the event courtesy of Darcy Henkel and Westcoast Working Equitation; Benjamin Davis gave us a cutting workshop; we included on-ground longsword, sidesword, and rapier tournaments for the first time; and we…

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Don't Miss the Best Mounted Combat Weekend this Year!

Wow, Carosella 2019 is this week!  And registration closes tomorrow, Thursday September 26th.  If you've always been meaning to take a course in the Mounted Combat Program this is your absolute best time to do it.  Normally courses like Intro to Mounted Combat and Beginner Horseback Archery are $200 each.  But you can take both…

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Carosella 2019: More Workshops, More Fun!

The Carosella Schedule is coming together and should be in its final form soon.  In the meantime, here are some highlights! Friday 27 September Intro to Mounted Combat Ballet at the Barn Grappling and Pommel Plays Working Equitation Swordplay from the Falsemount Horsemanship Level 1 Mounted Sparring Equine First Aid Beginner Riding Saturday 28 September…

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Working equitation bull

Carosella 2019 is Just a Month Away!

Carosella our three-day multi-disciplinary Mounted Arts symposium is coming up at the end of September.  From the 27th through the 29th, Cornwall Ridge Farm will be host to two full days of workshops, clinics, lectures, and demos, followed by a fun and friendly tournament on Sunday.

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East Meets West in our Mounted Combat Program

At the end of July through beginning of August we had another set of students go through our Mounted Combat Intensive.  As always, we held a playday on the last day, but this year we decided to open it up to other riders.  Along with some of our regular participants, we were delighted to be…

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A Stable Situation: needs and habits of the horse

Horsemanship Level 1: Stabling Aside from food, which was covered in last week’s post, a horse needs shelter and security.  These topics are both covered in the linked blog posts. For the Horsemanship 1 test we ask about Stabling: needs and habits of the horse Along with reference to food, secure fencing, and shelter, we…

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What’s on the Menu? Feeding Your Horse

Horsemanship Level 1: Basic Feeding First of all, go and re-read this post on my own blog, which covers basic feeding.  There is an entire science to equine nutrition, but for Horsemanship level 1 test we ask specifically about: Basic feeding: succulents, grain, roughage & water And here are the short answers we’re looking for.…

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